UCLA Basketball Recruiting: 5-star center Will Baker has the Bruins in his Top 4

Prized recruit Will Baker (Westlake/Austin, TX) has trimmed his list of prospective schools down to four and the UCLA basketball program has made the cut.

Recruiting for UCLA basketball has been on the uptick for some time and hopefully, it continues for Steve Alford as several top prospects have the Bruins on their radar.

RELATED: A Closer Look at UCLA’s 2018 Recruiting Class

In 2018, the Bruins locked up the no. 6 recruiting class in the nation, bringing in a 5-star and four 4-star recruits. In 2019, they already have the no. 3 class as 4-star SF Jaime Jaquez, SG Grant Sherfield, and 3-star SF Jake Kyman have already given their pledge to the Bruins.

That class will become stronger if another highly-touted recruit, specifically one that can dominate the frontcourt, also commits to the Bruins.

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The chances of that happening just got better as the no. 7 center in the nation, 5-star Will Baker, has trimmed his list of colleges down to four.

UCLA made the cut with the likes of Texas, Georgetown, and Stanford. According to 247Sports, Baker is projected to have Texas as the favorite with a 50% chance, with UCLA following them with a 25% chance.

Baker is quite the athlete. He may be 7-0, 236-pounds but he can play almost any position. As a frontcourt threat, Baker knows how to move around the rim. He has great ball control, has the ability to move in and out of space quickly due to his length and has a sweet touch when shooting. If he is not dunking the ball with authority, he is sending up gentle baby hooks, but that is not the extent of his offensive prowess.

This big guy does not limit himself because of his size. In fact, it often appears as if he is a wingman as he aggressively slashes to the basket from the outside, and can also pop out and hit three-pointers. Though he has room to grow, he is already making a name for himself as an all-around player.

It goes without saying that landing Baker in the 2019 class would be huge, but it should also give them the best class in the nation and having those four prospects mixed with the returners from 2018-19 would give the Bruins another dangerous squad in 2019-20.